Lankans owe a part of their revival in UAE to batting coach Tillakaratne
dubai — After being aced and bested by India in their own backyard, Sri Lanka seem to have turned the tide, miles away from the island nation.
The UAE has become the stage for redemption after those chastening experiences against the Indians, in the three-Test series.
The Lankans have found their mojo, racking two 400 plus scores in the two Tests against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai thus far.
Dinesh Chandimal’s side piled up 419 in their first innings in Abu Dhabi and went to better that with 482 in their first dig in this pink ball/day-night Dubai Test.
It has certainly been a sort of a step up after those pretty average scores against a potent Indian attack. Back in that series in July-August, Sri Lanka mustered 291 and 245 in the first Test at Galle, which India won by 304 runs. Next, at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Sri Lanka made 183 and 386, after following on. They lost that game in Colombo by an innings and 53 runs. The third Test in Pallekele went along similar lines with an innings and 171-run defeat after totals of 135 and 181 after following on.
Considering those, it has been a marked improvement from the Sri Lankan batsmen here in the UAE and former Sri Lankan middle-order batsman Hashan Tillakaratne has played a part in it. After working with their developmental sides, Tillakaratne was promoted to the senior side as batting coach, prior to the series against India.
And despite those blips against a red-hot India, his work is slowly paying dividends. Opener Dimuth Karunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella are two of the batsmen who have flourished under his guidance. The two left-handers, like their batting coach, have understood the virtues of occupying the crease as well as play a positive brand of cricket.
Karunaratne has been very impressive to say the least with 93 in Abu Dhabi and an imperious 196 in Dubai. It follows on after scores of 141 and 97 against India, 49 against Zimbabwe and 126 against Bangladesh. “We had a chat before this series with Dimuth (Karunaratne) and we wanted him to play more positive cricket in the first innings. I think he stuck to it and it is very pleasing to see his performance,” Tillakaratne said of Karunaratne.
There have been a few nervous 90 scores, not least the 196 here and Tillakaratne said that is something that they are working on.
“It is very pleasing to see someone like Dimuth has been scoring consistently. His 196 was a brilliant innings, I suppose. We are working on his 90s,” he assured.
Dickwella too has had some good scores although he could do even better and notch up a big one. The wicketkeeper-batsman made 83 and 40 not out in Abu Dhabi, 52 in Dubai and has had scores of 81 against Zimbabwe, 75 against Bangladesh, 67, 51, 41 against India.
“He has been scoring very consistently and even against India, he was amongst the runs. The boys are working very hard on their game and that is pleasing to see,” said Tillakaratne. And now, with Sadeera Samarawickrama impressing on debut, these are exciting times for Lankan cricket.